Making a Self, Writing a Life


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Dear Reader,

Before you are memories, moments of a life stilled by words and images. Do not be fooled: This story is not complete; it is not the whole truth. I tell you this so you will read these pages as a story that is still emerging. A story with memories that are still happening. You could say this is the story of an evolving person, an evolving life. You could even say "...that we are all becoming different persons all the time, we are not what we were; self and memory are emergent, in process, constantly evolving, and both are grounded in the body and the body image" (Eakin 20). My story is the story of a reader, a writer, a teacher, and a collector of memories. These three identities are not separate; they are simply the different ways in which I write my life story.

This is my story of memories and making of truth. This is my literacy narrative, a story in which "I celebrate myself and sing myself...for every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you."




Chapter One: Collector of Memories

Chapter Two: Why I Write

Chapter Three: The Tornado That Keeps Returning

Chapter Four: Scarry Words

Chapter Five: Castles I Have Known

Chapter Six: Eating Poetry

Chapter Seven: There's Truth and Then There's Life